Amsterdam
Streetsblog Basics
How Children Demanding Play Streets Changed Amsterdam
The above video, excerpted from a Dutch television documentary series, shows how children helped catalyze the fight for safe streets in Amsterdam more than a generation ago.
December 13, 2013
Bicycle Anecdotes From Amsterdam
Here we present our final -- and most informative -- Streetfilm from Amsterdam. It provides a nice cross-section of commentary on life in the City of Bikes. If you'd like to skip directly to a certain section, use this table of contents:
October 24, 2013
Amsterdam Draws Bike Boxes to Organize Bike Parking
Amsterdam cycling advocate Marjolein de Lange regales us with this tale about how in 2006 cyclists came up with a very simple solution -- draw bike box outlines directly on the pavement! -- to better organize the bike parking outside a popular supermarket. It's so simple and shows how sometimes engineers might over-think a problem.
August 23, 2013
No, Amsterdam Is Not “Swamped” By Bikes
In June, the New York Times published a story headlined "The Dutch Prize Their Pedal Power, But a Sea of Bikes Swamps Their Capital" that instigated much debate (over 365 reader comments in one day) and a torrent of emails to the editor. The Times followed up by seeking a "dialogue" with its readers about the supposed "swamping" of Amsterdam by bicycles. Then came all the echoes of the Times narrative inothermedia.
July 23, 2013
Some Things You Might See While In Amsterdam
I'm currently on a European junket, and ahead of the more serious Streetfilms that will come out of it, I thought it would be prudent to put up some everyday street scenes of bicycling in Amsterdam.
July 15, 2013
European Parking Policies Leave New York Behind
Flashback to Europe, sixty years ago. Just emerging from the ruin of total war, the continent was in the midst of a nearly unprecedented reconstruction. Over the next decade, industry finally was able to turn toward consumer products, from stockings to refrigerators and, of course, the automobile. Italians owned only 342,000 cars in 1950, but ten years later that number had increased to two million, according to historian Tony Judt. In France, the number of cars tripled over the decade.
January 19, 2011
If You Build It With Less Parking, They Will Still Come
We're nearly a couple of weeks into baseball season, and fans of the Washington Nationals are enjoying their new transit-, bike- and pedestrian-friendly stadium. The DC complex, with its transit links, shuttle buses and valet bike parking, is so accessible -- and city efforts to encourage fans to get there by alternate means so successful -- that on Opening Day its relatively few parking lots weren't even full, reports Greater Greater Washington:
April 10, 2008
On Potato Omelets and Winter Cycling
A Spanish tortilla, unlike the Mexican version, is essentially
a potato omelet. You fry some diced-up onions and potatoes in oil, and then
pour in some beaten egg. Flip it over, and voila, you have a tasty, round
golden thing to cut into slices and eat.
March 18, 2008